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Feds: Blago Extorted Hospital Honcho

Guv planned to seek campaign cash in return for state funding

By Gabriel Winant, Newser User

Posted Dec 11, 2008 12:47 PM CST

(Newser) – The Rod Blagojevich scandal extends beyond politics to medicine, the Chicago Tribune reports. He threatened to withhold $8 million in state funding for a pediatric health initiative unless the head of Children’s Memorial Hospital gave his campaign $50,000, according to the federal criminal complaint against the Illinois governor. "Children's Memorial is very disappointed" at being dragged into the story, the institution said in a statement.

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Thomas Wiffler, CEO UnitedHealthcare Chicago, Kimberly Thormann, CMH APN, Bonnie Barnes, co-founder DAISY Foundation, Michelle Stephenson, CMH chief nurse executive, and Patrick Magoon, CMH CEO. (Photo: Business Wire)

A Nov. 5, 2008 file photo shows Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich at a news conference in Chicago. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald talks about the criminal complaint against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges during a news conference in Chicago, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

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Children's Memorial is very disappointed that the $8 million in funding that the pediatric providers of Illinois believed would enable them to care for Illinois' neediest children has been tied to an alleged pay-for-play scheme. - Hospital statement

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Feds: Blago Extorted Hospital Honcho